Seneca recalls snow-filled district championship game on 30th anniversary

Nov. 16—With its 49-21 win over Mount Vernon last Friday, Seneca clinched a spot in the Class 3 state quarterfinals against Ava. This is the second year in a row the Indians have had to go through the Mountaineers in a district tournament.

But the two teams' playoff history against one another dates much further back than the last two seasons.

In fact, 2023 is the 30th anniversary of a classic matchup between the Seneca and Mount Vernon football programs. In 1993, Mount Vernon was ranked second in the state and Seneca third. Both teams were undefeated when they met. The game was played at Mount Vernon High School and there was snow on the ground as the Indians won 30-16.

Both teams came into play last week inside the top 10 of the Class 3 rankings, with Seneca ranked second and Mount Vernon seventh. There are a couple of players on the team this year who had fathers on the '93 team. Roger Marrs, an all-district center for the Indians 30 years ago, is the father of running back Jackson Marrs on this Seneca team. Bryan Clouse, a former safety and tight end, is the father of current safety Kaden Clouse.

"Seeing those Seneca kids go against Mount Vernon last week — Mount Vernon's always been one of our biggest rivals... I just always remember the green was one of the biggest teams we got hyped up the most for — it was awesome to see," Roger Marrs said. "Both stands were full. The crowds were crazy. Just like in '93."

"It's really cool watching our kids go through the same thing we did," Bryan Clouse said.

Clouse was a junior that year and Marrs a senior. The same can be said this year with Marrs playing in his final season and Clouse in his third.

Mount Vernon's head coach Tom Cox was a part of the staff back in 1993 as a junior high coach. Seneca's hall-of-fame coach Tom Hodge was head coach back then.

"Tom (Cox) and I are friends. But I still like to beat his tail at football every now and then," Hodge said.

Also, Mount Vernon's current athletic directer, Chris Johnston, had just graduated high school the year before as a Mountaineer; Johnston is on the coaching staff today and his son is quarterback, Gavin Johnston.

This group of Indians have excelled on offense, only being held below 30 points in one game. Their defense is no slouch, having shut out five opponents through 11 games.

But in 1993, Seneca entered the highly-anticipated postseason matchup with Mount Vernon with a 10-0 record and eight shut outs.

"No matter what the records are, it's a battle," Hodge said of the long-standing rivalry.

The rivalry dates back to the late 1970s between the Indians and Mountaineers at the beginning of the "Big 13 Conference."

Hodge recalls having to plan for "one of the fastest people in the area" for that game in Mount Vernon. That was Mount Vernon's Brandon Schmidly. In order to prepare for Schmidly, Hodge had former Seneca football player Shannon Crouch come to practice. Crouch was the fastest player Hodge had coached and he knew that would be a good way to simulate Schmidly's speed.

"That's the type of rivalry we had. You had to do everything you could to find a way to get a break," Hodge said.

It must have worked. Hodge said his speedster that year was Mac Whitehead and he watched Whitehead track Schmidly down from 20 yards behind on the snowy field.

Whitehead went on to play college football at Missouri Southern State University and coached high school football at Diamond last year; Schmidly played at Evangel University.

COMING BACK HOME

Marrs moved out of Seneca sometime after graduating and lived in Arkansas. But has been back in the area for about 10 years now and he talked about the importance of getting his family back to where he called home.

"I wanted my kids to grow up in a small town like Seneca, like I did," Roger Marrs said. "I'm still friends with most of those guys I played football with. And that's what I wanted Jackson to experience — and Lucas, my oldest son."

QUARTERFINAL MATCHUP

Seneca (11-0) heads to Ava (11-0) for a spot in the Class 3 semifinals. These programs have a bit of history of their own.

The Bears and Indians met in a Class 3 state quarterfinal game nearly 29 years ago to the date. On Nov. 14, 1994, Seneca topped Ava 30-0 to reach the Final Four.

Now, the Indians will look to do so again.

But in the way of that is an Ava offense that scores 54 points per game running a flexbone offense. The leader of the rushing attack is 6-foot, 215-pound Hunter Adams.

"They're an extremely physical football team. That's the thing that jumps on film," Seneca head coach Cody Hilburn said. "It's a tough week in preparation because the flexbone is so unique. They're unique on defense, too. They run an old-school bear front on defense."

Hilburn said the unusual defense features five men up front on the defensive line with two stand-up defensive ends. He says the defense focuses on loading the box and stopping the run with man coverage on wide receivers. The Indians should get plenty of one-on-one opportunities outside if they can protect the quarterback.

Ava's defense holds opponents to just 14 ppg. Seneca's defense has been a bit stingier this year allowing 11 ppg. The Indians can also score the ball at a high rate with 46 ppg.

"That's our first key this week is we have to stop the dive back. We have to be physical on our offensive and defensive lines," Hilburn said. "No. 2, this time of year you have to execute."

Along with that execution, he just wants to see his team play at its best no matter what happens on Friday night.

"Win or lose, you want to play your best football and I think we're doing that right now," Hilburn said. "Our kids know that there's a really good chance that if we win this one, we'll get to host a semifinal and our seniors get to play one more game at home and that's really important to us.

"We feel like our home-field advantage is one of the best in the area," Hilburn said.

With some research, Hilburn believes Seneca is 4-0 in state semifinal games that they've hosted.